War of the Stars: A New Hope Grindhoused

Thank you TMBTM! This is fucking epic! :]X

War of the Stars in an inspiration for all potential fan editors and general fans of Star Wars. His reimaging of Episode 4 as if it were a 70's grindhouse feature gives the classic guts and charm not existent in the original. It will not replace A New Hope, but it's not designed to do so. This is done for fun and for love, and likely watchers are going to experience both when watching it.

Mask's approach to this project allows himself a certian lenience that other editors will not necessarily be able to employ in a more serious venture. For example, heavy use of poor quality extra footage fits easily into his version because the overall quality itself has been lowered to reflect a less refined attempt at filmmaking.

This is evident not only in extra footage, but in the audio track as well. The dialog track is flat and purposely so, which allows Mask to insert his own dialog changes that, even when they come of inelagently, it only adds to the charm of the film.

However, where this movie really shines is Mask's descisions to resequence certain scenes in the film. In particular, his retooling of the scene in which Death Star is destroyed. It is unique, unexpected and, with the greatest decision he makes in the whole film, hilarious.

It's hard to find fault with such an edit particularly because every bad splicing job, every poor audio cue and every bad bit of pacing can really be attributed to the overall style of the film. It's a clever way of hiding mistakes.

This really is a must see.

Audio/Video Quality: The video quality is intentionally bad in most places, and unintentionally bad in others. This is a limitation of the source material in some cases, and an artistic decision in other cases. The point is for it to look bad, and it succeeds.


Visual Editing: The visual editing is quite good. New effects have been added, blood spurts and things of that nature have been integrated, it's great. At one point the "film" burns through the projector and we have a (monty python-esque) moment where the projectionist has to restart the footage. [This leaves a small hole in the narrative, and prevents an otherwise impossibly awkward transition. Think of it the same way you think of the "Missing Reels" in Tarantino's Grindhouse.]
Audio Editing: Some of Vader's lines feel very out of place. This works because of the style of the edit. Accept it, move along. None of the overdubbing is distracting enough to prevent you from enjoying the film.
Narrative: This is where this particular film wins. Telling a new story in the star wars universe is a feat in and of itself. Telling that story using only footage from the original films (and deleted scenes and fan films) brings us another level of skill.

The fact that the new story works so well, and is (probably) closer to what Star Wars would have been if George had cared a little less, is really impressive.

Enjoyment:I loved the movie. I love this nature of edit. TMBTM has taken his source material, flipped it on it's head and created something new and other. I want to see more people take this approach (not, necessarily, the grindhouse, but the telling of a new story rather than "fixing" problems with the old story.)

There aren't many people in the world who wouldn't benefit from seeing this film. I've personally watched it three times this month, and it grows in impact, rather than shrinking.

The premise, that The War of the Stars is just another spaghetti space opera, is beautiful. The editing is beautiful. The ending is a bit of a twist, and all the better for it.

This edit is certainly one of my favorites, and really not just one of my favorite edits but one of my favorite films of any kind. The only thing that really beats it to the top (well, aside from Doc Savage:Detartnished) is its sequel.(That's right, there's a War of the Stars part II, and it's even better.)

January 23, 2012 @ 9:36 pm

I was looking forward to watching this one since it had such great reviews. Unfortunately, it was a little bit of a letdown. There were parts that were brilliant and other parts that just weren’t.

Technical quality -10/10 –it’s supposed to be poor-ish video quality, so I can’t really comment on this section. All the downgrading of the video was done well though, so I’ll give it a 10.

Editing -9/10 – of course some of the editing was supposed to be sloppy. The added blood was pretty funny and some of the editing decisions were just amazing and pulled off very well. The music was too loud in a couple parts though.

Presentation – 10/10 – loved the menu and cover art.

Entertainment – 7/10 – let me start with what I liked. There were some parts that were just incredible – the cantina scene, the added music, Vader’s glowing red eyes, the deleted scenes, the Troops sequence (so amazing!), Owen and Beru on the twin suns, and best of all, the Death Star scene and ending with Jabba. These were the highlights, but there were other parts that weren’t so good. Half the time I just felt like I was watching the original, except with downgraded video quality. In order for this edit to really, really work, even more things would have to be changed to give it a completely different feel. Also, I didn’t really care for the R2-D2 subtitles.

Overall – 7/10

July 9, 2010 @ 12:35 am

For me this was a masterpiece of fanediting. This edit stands alone in the vast warehouse of Star Wars fanedits. It is entirely original, consistently surprising, and 100% rewarding.

Technical Evaluation
Audio Quality
The sound worked well. The levels were consistent and I was never forced to turn it up or down. The new musical sources blended well with original audio elements and I felt that all of the musical choices were fantastic.
10 out of 10

Video Quality
The beauty of this edit is in the thrashing of the quality. this is one of the driving forces behind the feel of the edit which also allowed TMBTM to incorporate many elements that otherwise would never work in a ‘traditional’ edit. Looking beyond the grain and scratch filters (and original source quality) there is no obvious pixelation, no un-intended quality drop-offs. The integration of the lost/deleted footage is particularly impressive given the quality of the original source.Top notch.
10 out of 10

Visual Edits
As a person who has the ANH permanently etched in memory, every new shot, every new angle popped, and the manner in which this was all combined is truly impressive, mixing and matching so many sources so that it feels intentional and by design. There were perhaps 2 cuts that felt hard where the transition from totally original sequences (Cantina for instance) back to the more traditional footage. The transition was so abrupt it was like waking from a really wonderful dream. These were far and few between.
9 out of 10

Overall Entertainment
For me, the best term to describe this edit is; Relentlessly original. This fanedit injected a sense of joy into a movie that I have seen easily over a hundred times, there was a sense of newness that I never expected to feel in a Star Wars film again.
At the conclusion of every sequence I found myself thinking “Well, that was a good run, but really, from here on out there is NOTHING else that can be done to make this feel as new or fresh as what I just saw” And each time I was wrong. The Man Behind The Mask delivers originality throughout the entire film.
10 out of 10. The shining moments for me had to be the Cantina sequence (simply amazing and original) and the Death Star Trench run. I did not see that bit coming, and I just about spit soda out my nose when it happened.

This edit may not be for everyone, but for me this was as perfect as an edit can get; Well executed, 100% original, and 100% entertaining. Thanks TMBTM!!
Overall Score: 10 out of 10